Josh Reviews Nobody Wants This

Nobody Wants This tells the story of the burgeoning relationship between a rabbi and a non-Jewish woman.  The show stars Kristen Bell as Joanne, a smart, funny, independent young woman who co-hosts a podcast all about sex and dating.  She is very much not Jewish.  The show co-stars Adam Brody as Noah Roklov, a popular young rabbi who is poised to step into the senior rabbi position at his synagogue.  He’s just broken up with his long-term (Jewish) girlfriend when, to the horror of his friends and family (especially his mother), he meets Joanne.  The two meet cute at a friend’s dinner, and sparks fly.  Can a relationship between a rabbi and a non-Jewish woman possibly work?

I’ll freely admit up front that this type of romantic comedy TV show isn’t really my thing.  But I think Kristen Bell and Adam Brody are both great, and I was intrigued by the attention-grabbing “rabbi dates a non-Jew” premise.  Many of my friends had strong opinions about the show (split pretty evenly between positive and negative), and so I was interested to watch and judge for myself.

The show is enjoyable.  The eight episodes are short and breezy, and they fly by.  Kristen Bell and Adam Brody are both terrific.  They’re fantastically likable, and they have great chemistry with one another.  It’s fun to watch these two on screen together, and the show is carried by their pleasing chemistry.  They’re surrounded by a fun supporting cast.  I laughed a lot watching the show.  It was fun.

But, sigh, I wish the show made more of an effort to get its Jewish representation correct.  It feels to me like so many projects these days bend over backwards to try to present an accurate, positive depiction of minorities.  This is wonderful to see.  Watching TV shows like Echo or True Detective: Night Country, or films like Moana or Encanto, I see what looks to me like genuine effort to present the various non-white cultures accurately.  I’ve read lots of articles and watched lots of featurettes about those shows, in which the creators talk all about how they’d have all sorts of consulting committees and other processes to try to ensure they were presenting those non-white cultures in a faithful and positive manner.  I wish Hollywood would make a fraction of that effort when it comes to Jewish representation.  When I see a Torah reading scene in Agatha all Along, and what I’m hearing on-screen doesn’t resemble anything approaching what the chanting from a Torah would actually sound like, it’s frustrating.

Here in Nobody Wants This, I was repeatedly thrown out of the show by the strange and confusing way that Rabbi Noah Roklov was depicted.  The show got off on an immediate wrong foot with me in this regard, because when we first encounter Noah on the bima in his synagogue, we’re treated to a close-up of two siddurim (prayer books): Siddur Sim Shalom and Siddur Lev Shalem,  These are the prayer books of the Conservative movement of Judaism.  (To simplify wildly, the Conservative movement is a denomination of Judaism whose members generally have a level of observance in a middle ground between Orthodox and Reform Jews.)  To put those two specific prayer books in the introductory shot of Noah is to say to a Jewish person that Noah is a Conservative rabbi.  And yet, as depicted on the show, Noah is clearly not a Conservative rabbi!  He doesn’t wear a kippah all the time, he doesn’t keep Shabbat, etc.  So this was at first confusing to me (as I tried to figure out what type of rabbi Noah was supposed to be) and then frustrating (when I realized, OK, he must be supposed to be a Reform rabbi, and so I guess whoever put those prayer book in the shot thought all Jewish prayer books were the same, and no one else involved with the show noticed or cared to think about it any more deeply).  Even if I accept that Noah is Reform rabbi and the prayer book thing was just a mistake, Noah doesn’t behave like any Reform rabbi I’ve ever encountered.  He goes out to a bar immediately after Friday night services, on Shabbat?  That stretches my credulity.

Why is any of this important?  When making Superman: The Movie back in 1978-79, director Richard Donner famously had a mantra of “veresimilitude”. If the audience is supposed to watch the movie and believe that a man can fly, everything else around the fantastical leap needs to feel real.  If we’re asking the audience to believe this unbelievable thing — that Superman can fly, and has super-powers, etc. — it is important for the rest of the film to feel grounded in reality.  If the whole film feels crazy and unrealistic, then there’d be nothing noticeable or impactful about Superman.  I feel the same approach should apply here.  On this show, the somewhat fantastical premise we’re being asked to accept is that a rabbi would date a non-Jewish sex podcaster.  I think that twist would be more effective if the depiction of the rabbi felt more realistic; then that choice would be surprising and impactful and interesting.  But if I don’t really buy the reality that Noah is a rabbi, then there’s little impact in his choosing to date a non-Jewish young woman.  And that makes the show less interesting to me.

So that’s a major stumbling block for me with this show.

Moving past that, the show is enjoyable!  Kristen Bell and Adam Brody bring their A-games!  Ms. Bell is always enjoyable (and her role as Eleanor Shellstrop in The Good Place has sealed her in my heart forever), as is Mr. Brody (who was particularly impressive recently, playing another Jewish young man in Fleishman is in Trouble).  Together, they’re dynamite.  The show works because their chemistry is so off-the-charts.

I also deeply loved both of their characters’ siblings!  Timothy Simons (who was indelible as the profane Jonah Ryan on Veep) is terrific as Noah’s brother Sasha.  Sasha has some of that over-confident Jonah Ryan energy, but wrapped in a much sweeter package.  Equally terrific is Justine Lupe as Joanne’s sister, and co-podcast host, Morgan.  Morgan questions Joanne’s relationship with Noah right from the beginning.  This character could easily have been positioned as an annoying obstacle, but I love the far better choice the writers made to allow her to also be happy for her sister.  I loved the way they developed Joanne and Morgan’s relationship over the course of the season, showing the friction between them and also their bond.  I was also delighted with how the show developed an unexpected friendship between Sasha and Morgan.  I loved those two characters together!!  That was a terrific choice.

There are some other fun faces in the supporting cast.  Broadway star Tovah Feldshuh and Paul Ben-Victor (the mobster Vondas on The Wire) are entertaining as Noah’s parents, as are Stephanie Faracy and Michael Hitchcock (a familiar face from many of Christopher Guest’s films) as Joanne’s parents.  Jackie Tohn is amusingly sullen as Sasha’s wife Esther, and Sherry Cola brings a fun joyous energy to the role of Joanne’s agent Ashley.  It’s fun to see Kristen Bell reunited with her The Good Place co-star D’Arcy Carden, who plays Joanne’s friend Ryann.  (I wish the brilliant Ms. Carden had more to do on the show.)  It’s fun to see Party Down’s Ryan Hansen pop up as a former boyfriend of Joanne’s, and of course I am always delighted to see the great Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson himself), who plays the senior rabbi at Noah’s synagogue.  Leslie Grossman is great as Rabbi Shira, Noah’s co-rabbi at the Jewish camp weekend he brings Joanne to.  (Rabbi Shira is a strong depiction of a rabbi who feels modern but also believable as a rabbi.  She’s by far the best depiction of a Jewish female character on the show.)

There’s been a lot of ink spilled online, suggesting that this show has a problem with its depiction of Jewish women.  I agree.  I understand the idea that most of the characters in a comedy show are going to be flawed, so that we can laugh at their foibles.  But I think the makers of this show made some tone-deaf choices with how the Jewish women on this show are portrayed.  When we first meet Noah’s almost-fiancee, Rebecca, she is behaving like a crazy person (basically announcing herself as engaged to Noah, despite his not having proposed), and later, she lies to Morgan in an attempt to sow dissent between Joanne and Noah.  Sasha’s wife Esther’s main role in the show is to be a nag: berating her husband Sasha for most everything he does, and berating Noah for abandoning Rebecca.  Noah’s mother Bina is also a nag, and on top of that she’s a hypocrite.  (She’s mean to Joanne for obliviously bringing treyf — non-Kosher meat — to a meal at their house, but then scarfs it down when she thinks no one is looking.)  All of these women look down their noses at Joanne, and dismiss her as “a shiksa”.  Joanne’s non-Jewish family and friends are also silly and sources of comedy on the show, but almost always in more positive ways.  Joanne’s mother Lynn is a cheerleader for her daughters and supportive of her gay ex-husband.  Joanne’s sister Morgan seems superficial at first, but is quickly given a lot of depth so the audience will like her.  (I did!)  Joanne’s agent and friends are also supportive of Joanne’s choices.  It’s really a night and day difference, and as a Jewish viewer, it’s a problem for me.

Also a problem: there were several times this season in which I rolled my eyes at what felt to me like sitcommy writing — in which the show resorted to unbelievable misunderstandings to try to create drama between the characters (like one would often see on sitcoms of yore).  The most egregious example for me was the whole bit in episode three in which, after Joanne and Noah’s first kiss, Noah doesn’t answer Joanne’s (funny) texts and so she spins out.  Of course, he had turned his phone off.  (Why did he do that??  No reason other than to create a misunderstanding between him and Joanne.)

So… sigh.  I did have fun watching these eight episodes!  The show is funny, and it zips along at an enjoyable pace!  (In this day of over-long movies and episodes of TV shows, it’s a relief to have 20-25-minute episodes of a comedy show!)  Kristen Bell and Adam Brody are eminently watchable, as are Timothy Simons and Justine Lupe (Sasha and Morgan).  At the same time, I wish the show was better.  The pieces are all there.

Nobody Wants This was renewed by Netflix for a second season, albeit with new show-runners.  I’m not sure what that change means for the tone and style of the show.  (The new show-runners, Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan, hail from Girls, which is not a show I much liked.  The articles all specify that creator and season one show-runner Erin Foster will remain involved, but I’m not sure what that means.)  Will the show get better or will it get worse?  Hard to say.  Either way, will I watch a second season?  I’m not honestly sure!  I have problems with this show, but I like these characters and, after watching this first season, I’m certainly curious where they go from here.  We’ll see…

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